West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Saturday dissolved the party’s national office bearers’ committee, which included her nephew Abhishek Banerjee – the national general secretary, and formed a 20- Member working committee packed with party veterans amid a growing rift between old timers and Gen Next.

Asserting her firm control over the party, Banerjee brought to the fore her trusted old guard while retaining young blood like Abhishek whose supporters in the recent past had publicly criticised veterans on the issue of holding multiple posts – within the party and state administration.

Banerjee will later name the new office bearers of the party, senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee told reporters after a meeting at the West Bengal chief minister’s Kalighat residence here.

At the meeting, Banerjee asked everybody to work together, a TMC source said.

Amid Abhishek Banerjee’s rising influence in the party, following the massive success in last year’s state elections where he was the “other” face of the party after Banerjee, a few senior leaders at the meeting once again underlined that Mamata Banerjee was their “supreme leader”, the source said.

“After Mamata Banerjee was re-elected the chairperson of the party, she had announced a small committee to look after the party affairs. Today, there was a meeting of that committee, and in that meeting, she announced the new national working committee,” “

“Mamata Banerjee will later appoint the new office bearers and then it would be sent to the Election Commission,” he added.

Among the leaders who found a place in the new national working committee are Amit Mitra, Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Bakshi, Sudip Bandopadhyay, Abhishek Banerjee, Anubrata Mondal, Aroop Biswas, Firhad Hakim and Yashwant Sinha.

TMC’s leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien and veteran Lok Sabha MP Sougata Roy were not included in the committee.

“All the posts related to the national office bearers’ committee cease to exist. It will be decided later by chairperson Mamata Banerjee. She is the only leader who has a post in the party, no other leader at the national level has any post right. now, “Chatterjee later said at a press conference.

Another senior party leader said, “So, Abhishek Banerjee is no longer the national general secretary. It is to be seen whether he is re-appointed to that post or to another post.”

Abhishek Banerjee, the Diamond Harbor MP, was appointed the national general secretary in June last year after the party stormed to power for the third consecutive term. Till late Saturday evening, his Twitter handle identified him as the national general secretary of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).

Abhishek Banerjee has been advocating for “one person one post” to make way for newcomers, challenging the veterans who hold multiple posts in the government and in the party. Incidentally, Sougata Roy, who failed to find a place in the new committee, had publicly voiced his support for Abhishek Banerjee.

Senior TMC leaders accuse I-PAC of furthering this agenda, which they claim led to protests in various parts of the state after the candidates’ list for the civic polls was announced. I-PAC has denied the charge.

“Mamata Banerjee gave the message that everybody has to work together and if there are any differences, it should be aired within the party and not in public,” said a TMC leader who was present at the nearly-an-hour-long meeting.

In January, when the state government was dilly-dallying imposing restrictions amid surging COVID-19 cases, Abhishek Banerjee publicly advocated stricter curbs and went on to impose those in his constituency – widely publicized as ‘Diamond Harbor Model’, triggering a war of words within the party over the move – which first brought to fore dissensions within party ranks.

New Delhi: A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court on Saturday in the wake of the Karnataka ‘hijab’ row and it seeks a direction to the Centre, states and union territories to implement a common dress code for staffers and students in registered educational institutions for securing equality and promoting fraternity and national integration.

On Friday, other cases pertaining to the ‘hijab’ controversy were mentioned for urgent hearing before the top court, which took note of the pendency before the three-judge bench in the Karnataka High Court, and said it would protect the Constitutional rights of every citizen and take up cases at an “appropriate time”.

The high court, in an interim order, meanwhile, asked the state government to reopen educational institutions and restrained students from wearing saffron shawls, scarves, hijab and any religious flag within the classroom in institutions which have prescribed a student dress code or uniform.

It is scheduled to resume hearing on February 14.

The fresh PIL , which has been filed by Nikhil Upadhyay through lawyers Ashwini Upadhyay and Ashwani Dubey in the apex court, also sought a direction to the Centre to set up a judicial commission or an expert panel to suggest steps for inculcating values of social and economic justice, socialism secularism and democracy and to promote fraternity dignity unity and national integration among the students .

Alternatively, being custodian of the Constitution and protector of fundamental rights, direct the Law Commission of India to prepare a report suggesting steps to secure social equality and to promote fraternity dignity unity and national integration within three months, it said.

Besides the Centre, states and the union territories, the PIL has made the Law Commission a party and sought a direction to respondent authorities to strictly implement a Common Dress Code for staff and students in all the registered and recognized educational institutions in order to secure equality of status and social equality and to promote fraternity dignity unity national integration .

It referred to certain protests held in the national capital on February 10 against the hijab’ curbs in Karnataka.

Educational institutions are secular public places and are meant to impart knowledge and wisdom employment, good health and contribute to nation building, not to follow essential and non-essential religious practices, the PIL said.

It is very essential to introduce a Common Dress Code in all schools-colleges to preserve the secular character of educational institutions, otherwise tomorrow Naga Sadhus may take admission in colleges and attend the class without clothes citing essential religious practice, it said.

The common dress code is not only necessary to maintain uniformity but also to instil a sense of camaraderie among students from different caste, creed, faith, religion, culture and place, the plea said.

It referred to the dress code in countries like the US, the UK, France, Singapore and China and said, according to a survey, around 2,50,000 guns were brought in schools and colleges in 2018. So, having a Common Dress Code that requires a student’s beltline exposed reduces the fear of a concealed weapon.

The controversy started towards the end of December when a few women students in hijabs were denied entry into a government pre-university college in Udupi. As a counter, some Hindu students turned up wearing saffron scarves.

The row spread to other educational institutions in different parts of the state, and the protests took a violent turn at some places earlier this week, prompting the government on Tuesday to declare a three-day holiday for the institutions.

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday held the Union government responsible for the “unemployment emergency” in the country and alleged that suicides have risen due to it.

He cited a media report which claimed that over 25,000 people have committed suicide between 2018 and 2020 due to debt and unemployment.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also targeted the BJP government alleging that instead of “Amrit Kaal” as claimed by the government, India was going through “Andh Kaal” (dark age) under a “blind king”.

The Congress has been attacking the government over unemployment and has belied the BJP’s claims of India going through ‘Amrit Kaal’, a reference to the best and most auspicious times.

In a tweet in Hindi with the hashtag ‘KiskeAccheDin’, Gandhi said, “Suicides rose due to unemployment. And what led to the rise in unemployment? The Central government is responsible for this unemployment emergency.”

Kharge also tweeted, “Twenty-four per cent increase in suicides due to unemployment. Eighty-four per cent of families saw a decline in income. Yet, Modi and his ministers call these difficult times as ‘Amrit Kaal’. This is India’s ‘Andh Kaal’ with an ‘Andha Raja’ as PM.”

“For the sake and welfare of ‘Double A’, 27 crore Indians have been pushed into poverty by ‘Hum Do’. This is the reality of ‘Amrit Kaal’,” the senior Congress leader said.

Udayagiri Police on Saturday arrested President of New Indian Congress Party, Ayyub Khan for making derogatory remarks against lord Gomateshwara.

According to the reports he has been booked under section 153(A) and others for his remarks that he made during a press conference recently.

The Jain community had protested against Khan and had submitted a memorandum to Mysuru Police Commissioner seeking action against him.

New Delhi: In its biggest bank fraud case, the CBI has booked ABG Shipyard Ltd and its former chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal along with others for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India of over Rs 22,842 crore, officials said on Saturday.

Besides Agarwal, the agency has also named the then executive director Santhanam Muthaswamy, directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal and Ravi Vimal Nevetia and another company ABG International Pvt Ltd for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position under the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act, they said.

“Searches were conducted on Saturday at 13 locations in the premises of accused including private company, directors at Surat, Bharuch, Mumbai, Pune etc which led to recovery of incriminating documents,” CBI said in a statement.

The bank had first filed a complaint on November 8, 2019 on which the CBI had sought some clarifications on March 12, 2020.

The bank filed a fresh complaint in August that year. After “scrutinising” for over one and a half years, the CBI acted on the complaint filing an FIR on February 7.

The company was sanctioned credit facilities from 28 banks and financial institutions led by ICICI Bank with the SBI having exposure of Rs 2468.51 crore, the officials said.

The Forensic Audit by Ernst and Young has shown that between 2012-17, the accused colluded together and committed illegal activities including diversion of funds, misappropriation and criminal breach of trust, they said.

It is the biggest bank fraud case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Funds were used for purposes other than for which they were released by banks, it said.

The loan account was declared as non-performing asset (NPA) in July 2016 and fraud in 2019.

In its complaint, the State Bank of India said ABG Shipyard Ltd (ABGSL) is the flagship company of the ABG Group which engaged in the business of ship building and ship-repair.

The ABGSL being a major player in Indian ship building industry operates from shipvards are located at Dahej and Surat in Gujarat with capacity to build vessels up to 18,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT) at Surat Shipyard and 1,20,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT) at Dahej Shipyard.

The company has constructed over 165 vessels (including 46 for export market) in the last 16 vears including specialized vessels like the newsprint carriers. self-discharging and loading bulk cement carriers, floating cranes etc with class approval of all international classification societies like Lloyds, American Bureau of Shipping. Bureau Veritas, IRS, DNV, the complaint said.

“Global crisis has impacted the shipping industry due to fall in commodity demand and prices and subsequent fall in cargo demand. The cancellation of contracts for few ships and vessels resulted in piling up of inventory. This has resulted in paucity of working capital and caused significant increase in the operating cycle. thereby aggravating the liquidity problem and financial problem,” the complaint said.

The SBI said there was no demand of commercial vessels as the industry was going through downturn even in 2015 which was further aggravated due to lack of defence orders making it difficult for the company to maintain repayment schedule, it said.

“The company has been referred to NCLT, Ahmedabad, by ICICI Bank for CIRP,” it said.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sack Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his alleged remarks on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Addressing a public meeting at Raigiri about 55 Km from here, Rao referred to the raging Hijab row in Karnataka and said Bengaluru, which is popularly known as the Indian silicon valley, is being turned into ‘Kashmir valley’ due to the ongoing tussle.

Modiji! Is this our Indian culture? Is this what has been taught in Vedas, Mahabharat, Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita? I am asking BJP National President Naddaji. Is it our culture?” he asked, referring to Sarma’s comments.

Seeking the dismissal of Assam CM Sarma, Rao said,”… Can a Chief Minister talk like this? There are limits. Are you egoistic? Doing tamasha? You think people will remain silent?.

KCR’s attack comes a day after Sarma had slammed Gandhi for demanding proof of the September 2016 surgical strike launched by the Indian Army against terrorist camps in PoK, and questioning the efficacy of the anti-Covid-19 vaccines, during a rally in poll-bound Uttarakhand.

The Assam CM had sought to know whether the BJP had ever demanded proof of him being the son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi .

The remarks drew sharp criticism from the Congress party.

Targetting the BJP over Sarma’s comments, Rao asked, Is it BJP’s culture? Is it Hindu Dharm and Indian culture?

“As an Indian, I am demanding an answer. I feel ashamed. This does not bring glory to our country. Do you think we will keep quiet with folded hands?

On the Hijab row in Karnataka, he said if the peaceful atmosphere of the country is disturbed, no investments will come nor will employment opportunities be created.

What is happening in Karnataka? …. Bengaluru, the Indian Silicon valley is being turned into Kashmir valley with religious fanaticism… If the eco and peace fabric of the country is ruined, who will come forward to invest and create employment opportunities, he said.

He categorically stated that Telangana will not implement power reforms proposed by the central government as the cost of free power to farmers is borne by the state government.

Without naming any company, the Telangana CM alleged that a friend of Modi is coming up with a 30,000 MW solar Power project in the country and the states are forced to buy it.

Describing the repealed Agriculture laws as a crazy idea of Modi, Rao said they were withdrawn keeping in mind the Assembly polls in five states.

Citing reports, he said India is in the 101th position in the Global Hunger Index below Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Referring to the alleged hardships faced by the migrant labourers during the first COVID-19 wave, Rao claimed that it was due to unthoughtful lockdown announced by the BJP-led government at the Centre.

Though he wanted to confine to Telangana for its development, some forces are ‘provoking’ him to take a plunge into national politics, he said as justification to play a role at the Centre.